Overlap of Concepts in Brain
There is an interesting and important
consequence of the fact that the brain is at its most fundamental a mass
of interconnecting neurons and synapses. That is, each concept we hold
in our brain does not have exclusive ownership of the neurons and pathways
that it uses. For example, let's consider the concept 'mother' and let's
suppose that it takes one million neural elements to hold the concept.
You have an abstract idea of 'mother'. Then you have an actual instance
of your mother. Perhaps that takes two million neural elements - you include
many experiences and memories, not just her physical manifestation. Of
those two million, perhaps eight hundred thousand are an overlap of the
general concept of mother.
Now let's add in the abstract concept 'beauty'.
Perhaps one hundred thousand neural elements to hold that idea. Perhaps
seventy-five thousand of them are shared with the abstract mother concept
and some of them with the concrete your mother concept.
What is the importance of this sharing or overlapping
of neural representations of concepts?
First it shows how we can easily slip from considering one
concept to another (Freudian and other slips).
Second it lends support to the understanding of how intuition
may take place in the brain by suggesting a mechanism of concept substitution.
See Fixated on Concepts for an example of a case where an original concept bleeds over in the mind to another concept.
